Violet's dad, Groomstick, out of the famous Runaway Groom, has had a very busy life. He is so famous that his name has been permanently retired by The Jockey Club! Here are his racing colors, he was a patriotic young man! He was born in 1986, and raced for 6 years between 1988 and 1993!!! He was raced 82 times!!! He earned 19 firsts, 9 seconds, and 8 thirds. He was an 11X stakes winner and earned $668,510 in his life. He was one of the top-earning babies in his own dad's life! Among his own children, Violet's siblings, he has foaled 5 stakes winners and his children have earned in excess of $7.2 million dollars!! He's had kind of a tough life lately -- I couldn't find a picture of him anywhere. He's been sort of bouncing around from stud farm to stud farm and his stud fee is dropping as he ages. He bounced around from sale to sale, then he bounced from claiming race to claiming race, until he started winning stakes races! He has been at stud farms in Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico. He moved to New Mexico in 2004. He serviced 10 mares in 2006, so he is still working. Here are the races he won: Gulfstream Park Sprint Championships; Banyan Handicap; Sunny Isle Handicap; Plantation Handicap (twice); Tamarac Handicap; Sunny Isle Handicap; Miami Beach Handicap; Melreese Handicap; Jupiter Handicap; and City of Miami Stakes. When he finally, poor thing, was retired from the track, he was sent to Florida to crash. I am including a blog from one of the people who passed through his life -- she tells how he was practically crippled when his painkillers and pain blockers wore off -- his front ankles had so many chips that they fused. The following links provide the blog story of his very precarious life and the New York Times story obituary for one of his owners, Gardner Landon. In the Blog, the lady talks about how Groomstick who was very crippled was a very kind patient babysitter to the new weanlings -- I'm not surprised to read that he is a sweet, hard-working boy. My Violet is wonderful; he'd be proud of his baby! If you ever find a picture of Groomstick, please send it to me!
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E0DA1E3BF937A35752C0A9679C8B63
http://workingforcoconuts.blogspot.com/2007/01/just-plain-happy-to-have-new-year.html